1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and recording methods that carries out the recording by irradiating a heat by a light beam, or the like onto a recording medium such as constructed by laminating a toner layer of a transfer sheet as the heat-mode sensitive material and an image receiving layer of an image receiving sheet.
2.Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there is employed a system that forms an image on a present paper by thermally transferring thermal material onto an image receiving sheet in response to image information by using a recording apparatus, that employs a recording head such as a laser light source, etc., and then passing the image receiving sheet and the present paper, superposed on this image receiving sheet, through an image transferring device to transfer the image formed on the image receiving sheet onto the present paper. In other words, an image receiving film is fixed to a recording medium fixing member (recording drum, surface fixing device, etc.) while directing its film surface to the outside, then a transfer sheet is also fixed onto the recording medium fixing member while directing its film surface to the image receiving film side to cover the image receiving film, and then a light such as the laser light, etc. is irradiated onto a laminated sheet consisting of the image receiving film and the transfer sheet (both are referred generically to as the xe2x80x9crecording mediumxe2x80x9d hereinafter) like the image.
FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view of the recording apparatus that uses the optical shutter as an example of the recording apparatus in the prior art. In FIG. 6, provided is a light source 70, and usually the laser light source, the light emitting diode, or the like is employed. A one-dimensional converting means 80 converts a point light source emission 71 from the light source 70 into a one-dimensional collimated light 81, and the lens, or the like is employed. An optical shutter device 90 controls the ON/OFF modulation of the collimated light 81 emitted from the one-dimensional converting means 80. In FIG. 6, ten optical shutters 90a are laterally aligned linearly.
In addition, A recording drum 60 is provided. The recording medium (the image receiving sheet 10 and the transfer sheet 20) is sucked by a recording drum sucking means, or the like described later, and fixed onto the recording drum 60. This recording drum 60 is rotated in the direction indicated by an arrow (main scanning direction), for example. In FIG. 6, in order to make it readily understand, the optical shutter device 90 is depicted to expand fully along the axis direction of the recording drum 60. But actually the width in the axis direction is smaller and also the optical shutter device 90 is constructed such that it can be moved in the direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction.
An operation of the recording apparatus show in FIG. 6 will be given as follows. The light is emitted from the light source 70 by applying the driving current and voltage corresponding to the input signal to the light emitting element of the light source 70. The emitted light 71 from the light source is irradiated to the optical shutter device 90 as a linear luminous flux 81 via the one-dimensional converting means 80.
The ON/OFF of respective optical shutters 90a are independently controlled in response to the input signal respectively such that transmitted lights 91 are emitted onto the recording mediums 10, 20 on the recording drum 60, that is being rotated in the main scanning direction, with controlled light quantities at timings assigned to respective lines to form two-dimensional images. In this case, ray controlling means (lenses, or the like) (not shown) are provided between the optical shutters 90a and the recording mediums 10, 20.
Therefore, a configuration of an operation of the optical shutters 90a will be explained with reference to FIG. 7(a). FIG. 7(a) shows the state that three optical shutters out of the 10 optical shutters 90a of the optical shutter device 90 in FIG. 6 are aligned. In FIG. 7(a), cl is a common signal line extended laterally in Figure, and ln, ln+1, ln+2 are selective signal lines that intersect perpendicularly with this common signal line cl (i.e., that are extended in the perpendicular direction to this sheet in this Figure respectively). Pn, Pn+1, Pn+2 are liquid crystal shutters that are provided to intersection points between the common signal line cl and the selective signal lines ln, ln+1, ln+2 respectively, whereby respective pixels are formed. In the liquid crystal shutters Pn, Pn+1, Pn+2, the liquid crystal layer is formed by injecting and sealing the liquid crystal formed of STN liquid crystal, FLC liquid crystal, or the like into the clearance space between the lower and upper glasses (not shown) by the known method. In this manner, patterns of the electrical signal lines are formed for respective pixels, and then the optical shutters ON/OFF (open/close)-control respective pixels independently by the selective signal lines ln, ln+1, ln+2. Then, patterns of respective signal lines are arranged not to generate the short-circuit. Also, the clearances (insulation areas) are provided between the pixels not to generate the short-circuit. Therefore, respective light quantities Ln, Ln+1, Ln+2 of the lights that are passed through the optical shutters Pn, Pn+1, Pn+2 when all the optical shutters Pn, Pn+1, Pn+2 are turned ON have distributions shown in FIG. 7(b) respectively.
Accordingly, a one-dimensional light quantity distribution TL of a total light quantity of the lights that are passed through respective optical shutters Pn, Pn+1, Pn+2 when all the optical shutters Pn, Pn+1, Pn+2 are turned ON is shown in FIG. 7(c). In this manner, in the optical shutters in the prior art, the break of the light quantity distribution is caused in the sub-scanning direction as shown in FIG. 7(c). As a result, in the recording apparatus having such optical shutters, if the recording is carried out by turning ON all optical shutters Pn, Pn+1, Pn+2, breaks (clearances) of the light quantity distribution in the sub-scanning direction appear between the pixels on recording lines Kn and Kn+1, Kn+1 and Kn+2 along the main scanning direction as shown in FIG. 7(d), and thus vertical stripes of unrecorded portions are produced.
In this manner, in the prior art, since the optical shutter device 90 in FIG. 6 employs the rectangular optical shutters 90a, the vertical stripes S of unrecorded portions are produced between the recording lines K along the main scanning direction when the recording is carried out by turning ON all the optical shutters 90a, whereby the image defect is caused.
In order to eliminate these clearances, recording conditions must be changed. However, if doing so, conversely it is impossible to get the predetermined density.
Also, in order to bury the clearances, the recording must be carried out by applying the overpower to such extent that the heat flows out in the lateral direction, otherwise the recording must be carried out at the low speed. However, these measures go against the needs of the times such as the energy conservation, the high-speed recording, etc.
Therefore, the present invention provides a recording apparatus in which the clearances of the light quantity distribution are not produced between the pixels in the sub-scanning direction when the recording must be carried out by turning ON all pixels and therefore vertical stripes of unrecorded portions are not produced when the recording is carried out in the main scanning direction and thus the image defect is not caused.
In order to overcome the above subjects, a recording apparatus in this invention comprises a recording medium fixing member for fixing a recording medium, a recording medium fixing member moving device for moving the recording medium fixing member by setting a moving direction of the recording medium as a main scanning direction, and a recording head which has a plurality of recording pixels that are aligned one-dimensionally, whereby recording of the recording medium is carried out by a laser beam projected from the recording head, wherein shapes of said plurality of recording pixels are set to parallelograms of which alignments are determined in such a way that a part of recording loci of one of said plurality of recording pixels and another part of recording loci of another one of said plurality of recording pixels are subjected to a scanning, said one of said plurality of recording pixels being located adjacent to said another one of said plurality of recording pixels.
A recording apparatus in this invention comprises a recording medium fixing member for fixing a recording medium, a recording medium fixing member moving device for moving the recording medium fixing member by setting a moving direction of the recording medium as a main scanning direction, a light source for emitting a light beam that is expanded one-dimensionally toward the recording medium fixing member, and an optical shutter device positioned between the light source and the recording medium fixing member and constructed by aligning at least one-dimensionally a number of optical shutters that control passing and reflection of the light beam, whereby recording of the recording medium is carried out to form a plurality of recording pixels by the light beam that is passed through the optical shutters, wherein shapes of said plurality of recording pixels are set to parallelograms of which alignments are determined in such a way that a part of recording loci of one of said plurality of recording pixels and another part of recording loci of another one of said plurality of recording pixels are subjected to a scanning, said one of said plurality of recording pixels being located adjacent to said another one of said plurality of recording pixels wherein pixel shapes formed by respective optical shutters are set to parallelograms and also an alignment of the parallelograms is set to overlap partially with recording loci of parallelogram pixels formed by adjacent optical shutters when scanning is executed in the main scanning direction.
A recording apparatus in this invention comprises a recording medium fixing member for fixing a recording medium, a recording medium fixing member moving device for moving the recording medium fixing member by setting a moving direction of the recording medium as a main scanning direction, a light source for emitting a light beam that is expanded one-dimensionally toward the recording medium fixing member, and an optical shutter device positioned between the light source and the recording medium fixing member and constructed by aligning at least one-dimensionally a number of optical shutters that control passing and reflection of the light beam, whereby recording of the recording medium is carried out by the light beam that is passed through the optical shutters, wherein pixel shapes formed by respective optical shutters are set to almost rectangles and also
xcex81xe2x89xa6xcex82 
is satisfied, where xcex81 is an angle between a line D connecting an upper right portion A of an n-th pixel and a lower left portion B of an (n+1)th pixel and a line E connecting the lower left portion B of the (n+1)th pixel and an upper left portion C of the (n+1)th pixel, and xcex82 is an angle between a one-dimensional alignment direction of the optical shutters that are inclined along the main scanning direction and a sub-scanning direction.
A recording apparatus in this invention comprises a recording medium fixing member for fixing a recording medium, a recording medium fixing member moving device for moving the recording medium fixing member by setting a moving direction of the recording medium as a main scanning direction, a light source for emitting a light beam that is expanded one-dimensionally toward the recording medium fixing member, and an optical shutter device positioned between the light source and the recording medium fixing member and constructed by aligning at least one-dimensionally a number of optical shutters that control passing and reflection of the light beam, whereby recording of the recording medium is carried out by the light beam that is passed through the optical shutters, wherein pixel shapes formed by respective optical shutters are set to parallelograms and also the optical shutter device, by which the clearances are produced between recording loci of parallelogram pixels formed by adjacent optical shutters in a sub-scanning direction, is arranged to be rotated such that an angle xcex83 between a line connecting an acute angle portion H on a right side of an n-th pixel and an acute angle portion J on a left side of an n+1-th pixel and a sub-scanning direction axis exceeds 90 degree.
A recording method in this invention provides with an image onto a recording medium with a laser beam projected from a recording head by fixing the recording medium onto a recording medium fixing member, causing the recording medium fixing member by a recording medium fixing member moving device to move in a moving direction of the recording medium being set as a main scanning direction, and aligning a plurality of recording pixels of a recording head one-dimensionally,
wherein shapes of said plurality of recording pixels are set to parallelograms of which alignments are determined in such a way that a part of recording loci of one of said plurality of recording pixels and another part of recording loci of another one of said plurality of recording pixels are subjected to a scanning, said one of said plurality of recording pixels being located adjacent to said another one of said plurality of recording pixels.
A recording method of recording in this invention provides with an image onto a recording medium by a light beam that passes through optical shutters by fixing the recording medium onto a recording medium fixing member, causing the recording medium fixing member by a recording medium fixing member moving device to move in a moving direction of the recording medium being set as a main scanning direction, emitting a light beam, that expands one-dimensionally, from a light source to the recording medium fixing member, and arranging an optical shutter device, that is constructed by aligning a large number of optical shutters at least one-dimensionally, between the light source and the recording medium fixing member to control a passing or a reflection of the light beam to form a plurality of recording pixels, wherein shapes of said plurality of recording pixels are set to parallelograms of which alignments are determined in such a way that a part of recording loci of one of said plurality of recording pixels and another part of recording loci of another one of said plurality of recording pixels are subjected to a scanning, said one of said plurality of recording pixels being located adjacent to said another one of said plurality of recording pixels.
A recording method of recording in this invention provides with an image onto a recording medium by a light beam that passes through optical shutters by fixing the recording medium onto a recording medium fixing member, causing the recording medium fixing member by a recording medium fixing member moving device to move in a moving direction of the recording medium being set as a main scanning direction, emitting a light beam, that expands one-dimensionally, from a light source to the recording medium fixing member, and arranging an optical shutter device, that is constructed by aligning a large number of optical shutters at least one-dimensionally, between the light source and the recording medium fixing member to control a passing or a reflection of the light beam, wherein pixel shapes of respective optical shutters are formed as almost rectangles and, if an angle between a line D connecting an upper right portion A of an n-th pixel and a lower left portion B of an n+1-th pixel and a line E connecting the lower left portion B of the n+1-th pixel and an upper left portion C of the n+1-th pixel is set as xcex81 and an angle between a one-dimensionally aligned direction of the optical shutters inclined to the main scanning direction and a sub-scanning direction is set as xcex82,
xcex81xe2x89xa6xcex82 
is satisfied.
A recording method of recording in this invention provides with an image onto a recording medium by a light beam that passes through optical shutters by fixing the recording medium onto a recording medium fixing member, causing the recording medium fixing member by a recording medium fixing member moving device to move in a moving direction of the recording medium being set as a main scanning direction,
emitting a light beam, that expands one-dimensionally, from a light source to the recording medium fixing member, and arranging an optical shutter device, that is constructed by aligning a large number of optical shutters at least one-dimensionally, between the light source and the recording medium fixing member to control a passing or a reflection of the light beam, wherein pixel shapes of respective optical shutters are formed as parallelograms and an optical shutter device, in which clearances are formed between recording loci of parallelogram pixels formed by neighboring optical shutters in a sub-scanning direction, is arranged to rotate such that an angle xcex83 between a line connecting an acute angle portion H on a right side of an n-th pixel and an acute angle portion J on a left side of an n+1-th pixel and a sub-scanning direction axis is set to 90 degree or more.
A recording method in this invention, the recording medium is formed of heat-mode sensitive material that is constructed by laminating a toner layer of a transfer sheet and an image receiving layer of an image receiving sheet.
A recording method in this invention, heat-mode sensitive material that is constructed by laminating a toner layer of a transfer sheet and an image receiving layer of an image receiving sheet is employed as the recording medium.